Hey everyone, I'm Drex, and this is the Two and a Half Minute Drill. We do at least three security stories at least two times per week, all for one great community, the 229 Cyber and Risk Community here at This Week Health. I try to make this mostly English, mostly non technical, so that makes it easy to share with everyone in your organization.

So let's get started. Here's some stuff you might want to know about. The president's budget has been released. Of course, that's just the first version of the budget that will go, you know, over the river and through the woods before it comes out the other side as an approved budget, if it ever comes out the other side as an approved budget given our current political environment.

Interestingly, there's a paragraph on page 83 where the president requests 800 resourced hospitals to cover upfront costs of security investments, and another 500 million as an incentive program to encourage all hospitals to invest in cyber. Mere mortals like you and I, that sounds like a lot of money, but in government spreadsheets, this kind of money is referred to often as budget dust.

I mean, we should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but given everything that's going on right now, I'm not feeling the sense of urgency that I'd kind of hoped for. At the same time, the American Hospital Association, the AHA, has issued a letter saying that while they're okay with the new funding, they don't like the idea that there are new penalties for hospitals not meeting the essential cybersecurity practices beginning in FY29.

Honestly, I don't see that last part in the President's budget. But I'm not a government policy or a government budget wonk, and I say wonk only in the most endearing way. Uh, I've asked for some help from some friends who do spend a lot more time focused on this stuff, so I'll keep you updated. And finally, And gross, the Rizda ransomware syndicate who attacked Lurie Children's Hospital claims that it has sold data that it stole during the cyber attack.

That cyber attack disrupted everything from phones to the electronic health record and they're still recovering. I'll talk more about why that stolen data, especially children's data, is some of the most valuable to cyber thugs in the next edition of the two and a half minute drill. I just can't fit it all in here today.

There's obviously a lot of hot stories associated with healthcare cyber. So I drop all the two and a half minute drill stories and a bunch more at ThisWeekHealth. com slash news. If you're a health system leader, you can become a news contributor. Just click on the contributor button and you'll get a special number you can text stories to.

Thanks in advance for being crowdsourced community effort here at This Week Health. And speaking of community, check out the 229 Cyber and Risk Community at thisweekhelp. com slash security. Please like and share this post and tag your friends because security is everyone's business and cyber safety is patient safety.

I'm Drex. That's the two and a half minute drill. Stay a little paranoid and I'll see you around campus.